Three Myanmar Jesuits, Cyril Phocho Nay Myo Htet, Pius Than Naing Lin and Joseph Zau Gun were ordained to the priesthood together with six members of the Yangon Archdiocese on Saturday, September 21 at St Mary’s Cathedral in Yangon. After the years of Jesuit studies and formation, they are finally home. They spend the next days and weeks meeting, thanking and praying with their families and relatives. The first mass of Cyril Phocho followed the next morning in his home parish of St Therese in Ahlone, a suburb of Yangon. On Wednesday 25th Joseph Zau Gun celebrated his first mass in Kachin language in his home village Kawahka in Myitkyina. Joseph’s family originally come from Mali Nmai Walawng, a place in the north of Kachin State, but because of the ongoing conflict have moved into Myitkyina in the parish of Sitarpu. Pius’ first mass is to be celebrated in his home village Than Le Gyi, outside of the Chin township of Pyay on Sunday 29th.
The most striking feature of these ordinations and subsequent celebrations is the joy evident in the families, the villages, indeed in all the members of the clan or community to which each new priest belongs. Remarkable too is the enthusiasm of the local Church in welcoming the new priests. A feast is prepared, there is music, dancing and time to give thanks. The priests and sisters of the Diocese come in numbers. Now retired Archbishop Paul Grawng, who was present in the first mass of fellow Kachin, Fr Joseph Zau Gun, explained to me how he completed his seminary formation under the Jesuits of the Maryland Province who were present in Burma from 1957 until expelled by the military dictatorship in 1966. He himself had considered applying to be a Jesuit, but it proved impossible because of the isolation into which Burma had been thrown. The celebration with Joseph Zau Gun, a Kachin Jesuit priest, and to see Pius and Cyril join the mass in Kachin language, was a dream come true for him.
It takes a whole village to raise a child, they say. It surely takes a whole village and a whole parish to raise a priest, to give the support he will need and to bring him into the real life of his people. The ordinations and especially the festive early masses are cultural events, celebrations of the faith life of the people expressed in all simplicity in rich, moving ritual.
The new priests have immense expectations to fulfil. We priests wonder if we will ever have enough faith and grace to share with the people of God, to respond to people as Jesus would. But people bring their faith to us. Faithful people share with simplicity their faith and their grace, their hope and their love. The goodness of the people present in these celebrations tells me that our priests will find in their communities the care and consolation that will strengthen them to reach out to those who have no community, have lost love, or are somehow on the edge.
Fr Mark Raper SJ is the Superior of the Myanmar Jesuit Mission